Charalambos Kasimis is a Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of the Agricultural University of Athens. In March 2015, he was appointed as Secretary General of Agricultural Policy and Management of European Funds of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, in charge of CAP, Rural Development and Fisheries Development Programmes of Greece as well as International Relations. He completed his term in office in July 2019.
He has served as the Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (2013-2014) and as the Director of the Postgraduate Studies MSc. Programme “Integrated Rural Development and Management of Rural Space” (2010-2014). Between September 2014 and March 2015, he was appointed as Deputy Rector of the Agricultural University of Athens. In the period 1986-2003 he served as a member of staff at the Department of Economics of the University of Patras and between 1995 and 2000 as the Director of the Institute of Urban and Rural Sociology at the National Centre for Social Research. For a number of years, he served as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Rural Sociology and between 2013 and 2015 as President.
His academic interests focus on issues of rural transformation and development in Greece, the Balkans and the Mediterranean region and more particularly on family farming, employment and rural community change. Migration and, more precisely, the implications of international migration on rural regions have become one of his main research topics in the past years. In the crisis years he dealt with the study of the implications of the economic crisis upon the rural areas and the ‘return to the land’ movement in Greece.
Since 2016 Charalampos Kasimis is Vice President and member of the Governing Board of the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM).
Between 2018 -2019 he served as Executive Board member of the Organisation “Enterprise Greece”.
Geert Wilms studied Horticulture at Wageningen University and Business Administration at Open University. For more than 20 years Geert has been director of Agricultural Innovation Brabant (LIB), and he is consultant at Royal Haskoning DHV.
LIB is a partnership of Province North-Brabant and farmers organization ZLTO. Each year more than 30 innovative projects are initiated and supported, with the participation of hundreds of (agricultural) businesses. Several workshops are organized and guided. Geert is directly accountable to the President of ZLTO and regional Minister of agriculture in North-Brabant. One project he started and is very proud of: “Smart irrigation in agriculture; 3.000 farmers participating with 60.000 hectares, and 25% gain of efficiency in water use”.
Geert Wilms also is a speaker, discussion leader and initiator of cooperation in different regions in Europe. He is/was involved in more than 15 European funded projects, for example Water management, Water conservation, Agrispin, Eurodairy, EU-PIG and STRING.
George Pontikas is President and CEO at Syngenta Hellas Single Member SACI. He began his career in 1990 at Ciba Geigy Hellas (Legacy company of Syngenta), as Seed Development Manager. In 1997 he became Director of the Seed Division and in 2011 Head of Sales of the company’s consolidated business and Managing Director since 2015.
In January 2020 along with the position of Head of Sales for Crop Protection Products he assumes the duties of President and Managing Director at Syngenta Hellas Single Member SACI as well as the position of Business Area Manager for the countries Greece, Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, Albania and Kosovo (BA Mediterranean).
He is President of the Hellenic Crop Protection Association (ESYF). He was President of the Greek Seed Trade Association (SEPY) from 2010 to 2016 and member of the Board of the International Seed Federation (ISF) from 2010 to 2013.
George Pontikas is agronomist with a master degree in rural economy, marketing & sociology, and a master degree in Business Administration (MBA).
Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1972, Mr. Vassos Efthymiadis graduated from Anatolia College of Thessaloniki (1990) and has a B.Sc. in Industrial Economics from the London School of Economics (1993) and an M.Sc. In Shipping, Trade and Finance from City University (1994).
Mr. Efthymiadis is Managing Director of K&N Efthymiadis S.A., one of the leading Greek companies in the field of agricultural supplies, established in 1935 and having a significant export activity in various countries of Southeastern Europe. Moreover, he is Vice President of the Redestos Agrotechnology Group, the largest and most diverse agribusiness group in Greece, dealing with agricultural supplies, R&D in plant propagation material, analytical laboratory services concerning food quality and hygiene, environmental services and food trading through contract farming.
Alongside his main business interests, Mr. Efthymiadis is actively involved in a number of associations and educational institutions for the promotion of economic growth and development. In this capacity, he is currently serving as
He is married to Calliope Gkantzou and has 2 children
Sonia Mousavere was born and raised in Athens. After completing her studies at the University of Patras, in the Chemistry Department, she started in 1995 her professional career in the Pharmaceutical industry. Having acquired distinct positions in production initially, and then in sales, marketing and training departments of large multinational companies, she gained valuable experience and deep knowledge of the operation, needs and challenges faced by the pharmaceutical companies in our country. In 2006 she joined Bayer Hellas, leading the Training Department of the company, expanding her experience in new fields such as Cosmetics and Agriculture. In 2013 she took over the position of the Head of Communications and Public Affairs and since then she is responsible for the corporate communication portfolio, Corporate Social Responsibility program, the local accelerator Level-up and the coordination of the company’s relations with the general public and stakeholders.
Manolis Panagiotopoulos is an agronomist. He began working in Bayer in 2004 as a Sales Representative in Western Greece. In 2009, he continued in Marketing taking the responsibility of various positions including Product/Crop Management and development of collaborations in the framework of Bayer’s Food Chain Partnership. During this period, he acquired experience in the agri-food sector, having the opportunity to collaborate with growers, food processors, packing houses and other stakeholders in food value chain, contributing mainly in aspects of produce quality and sustainability. In 2014, he took over the position of Marketing Manager, supporting strategies to provide modern integrated crop solutions for the Greek grower. Since June 2019, he became Country Commercial Lead for Greece and Cyprus, in the Crop Science Division of Bayer Hellas.
Manolis Panagiotopoulos is a graduate from the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology at the Agricultural University of Athens and holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Hellenic Open University. He is also member of the Managing Board of the Hellenic Crop Protection Association (HCPA) and vice-president of the Managing Board of the Crop Protection Packaging Recycling Company (CYCLOS SA)
Konstantinos Papasotiriou was born in Athens. He is agronomist, graduated from the Agricultural University of Athens and holds a master’s degree in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry.
He has been director in large multinational companies of crop protection and nutrition products such as ICI-Zeneca, Syngenta, BASF, ELFE and Arysta LifeScience with regions of responsibility in Greece and Southern Europe.
Today he is CEO of UPL Hellas – formerly Arysta LifeScience Hellas – for Greece, Cyprus and business head of Adriatic region.
At the same time, he leads the NPP (Natural Plant Protection) strategic platform of UPL OpenAG aimed at redesigning the Sustainable Development of Modern Agriculture.
He is Vice-President of the Hellenic Plant Protection Association (Hellenic Crop Life) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Fertilizer Producers Association SPEL.
He is married to Dr. Papastylianou Panagiota, professor at the Agricultural University of Athens and is the proud father of Dimitra Graphic Designer and Marilia Pediatrician doctor at the University Clinic of Bochum.
Frantzeska Ydraiou is an Agronomist Msc., holder of Maitrise Special title in Phytopharmacology and Phytomedicine. She worked both as a public servant (Ministry of Agriculture in Greece) and for the private sector (industry of plant protection products) before becoming the Director General of the HCPA in 1997. During this period, she has dealt with matters of National and European legislation concerning plant protection products sector and sustainable agriculture as well as with the implementation of programs for the protection of PPP users and water, the collection of empty PPP containers, raising awareness on risks of illegal pesticides, in cooperation with municipalities, institutes, services and farmers. She has attended numerous seminars, conferences and workshops primarily as speaker as has also lectured at the Agricultural University of Athens, the University of Aegean and the Medical School of Athens. She is also an external member of the Council of Administration of Agricultural University of Athens.
Dionysis Stamenitis was born in Giannitsa in 1968. He studied civil engineering in the Polytechnic School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with postgraduate studies in “Environmental Policy, Education and Communication” in the Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources of Democritus University of Thrace, specializing in the Energy Policy and Development.
Since 1995 he is a regular member of the Technical Chamber of Greece and since 1999 a civil engineer as a freelancer, specializing in Administration building Works and in Structural and Functional Rehabilitation of listed buildings. He was also a scientific committee member of the Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering and a member of the permanent committee of private works and building activity of the Technical Chamber of Greece.
On the 6th of May in 2012 he was elected for the first-time member of Parliament in the constituency of Pella in the general elections on behalf of Nea Demokratia and he was reelected in the elections on the 17th of June in 2012, on July 7th 2019, on May 21st 2023 and June 25th 2023. On the 27th of June in 2023 he assumed duties as Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Rural Development and Food upon the decision of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.